Attorneys address jury

in Harrington murder trial
By Melanie Davis
melanie@mountaintimes.com

Jury selection is complete and the presentation of the prosecution’s evidence is under way in the capital trial of Neil Matthew Sargeant, 26, who is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Appalachian State student Stephen Harrington.

Jury selection was completed Friday and the jurors, consisting of 10 females and two males with three female alternates, were impaneled Monday morning.

Opening statements from each side kicked off the presentation of evidence.

District Superior Court Judge Robert Payne, who is presiding over the trial, advised the jury not to consider these statements as evidence.

The intended purpose is to forecast the evidence to be presented from both the defense and the prosecution and make the evidence easier to follow for jurors.

The first to speak was assistant district attorney Charlie Byrd on behalf of the state.

He opened his speech with a description of a couple taking an early morning walk in the Sleepy Hollow community, finding a smoking vehicle.

The trunk of the vehicle is opened to find the charred remains of Stephen Harrington.

“This case is about how that body came to be there. This case is about the murder of Stephen Harrington,” he said.

Byrd continued by outlining the arrangement of the alleged cocaine sale, which is said to have prompted the murder.

He said the three co-defendants together taped up Harrington’s head to “terrorize, torture and scare” him.
In closing, Byrd spoke of dousing the body with lighter fluid as a cowardly, heinous and atrocious act.

Defense attorney Garland Baker then spoke on behalf of Sargeant. Baker began by acknowledging the title “drug dealer.” He then proceeded to tell the jury that the case involved four drug dealers, Sargeant, Harrington, and co-defendants Kyle Triplett and Matthew Dalrymple.

The defense contends that Sargeant “neither by fault, word or deed did Sargeant intend Harrington’s murder.”

Baker continued by outlining a different scenario than that of the prosecution, in which Triplett was behind the murder. Baker stated Sargeant and Dalrymple were both sleeping during the time Harrington was beaten and wrapped in duct tape. He alleges the pair awoke to find Harrington lying in the floor of Sargeant’s home on Poplar Hill Drive.

Baker also contends that Triplett alone put Harrington’s body into the trunk of Harrington’s own Subaru and drove it alone to Sleepy Hollow Lane, with Sargeant and Dalrymple following in a separate vehicle.

Baker closed by telling the jury that his client, Sargeant did not ever touch Harrington.

In previous statements in the case, Triplett has said he was asleep and woke to Harrington’s “toe curling voice” while Sargeant was binding him with duct tape.

Triplett has also said that he was the driver of Harrington’s car during the trip to Sleepy Hollow Lane, but that Sargeant, carrying a handgun, was a passenger. Triplett has admitted to lighting the body on fire inside the trunk.

Following opening statements, several witnesses were called to the testify throughout the day Monday.

Testimony was heard from Steve Tatum, the Sleepy Hollow Lane resident who discovered the smoking car.
Dan Hayes, also a Sleepy Hollow Lane resident, was the next to testify as the person who called 9-1-1 at the request of Tatum.

Capt. Kelly Redmond of the Watauga County Sheriff’s Office was the first law enforcement official on scene on Nov. 8 when Harrington’s body was discovered.

During his testimony, the events leading to the discovery of the body within the trunk were outlined.

Frank Alridge, safety officer for the Foscoe Volunteer Fire Department, testified about the fire within the trunk of the vehicle and the process of extinguishing the still smoldering body.

Two expert witnesses were called to the stand, both experts in pathology. Dr. Brent Hall, medical examiner for Watauga County, was the first to testify. Hall was called to the crime scene initially to determine if an autopsy was necessary and perform a cursory examination of the body.

Hall testified he requested the autopsy be performed in the Office of the State Medical Examiner, and transferred the body to their office in Chapel Hill.

Dr. Deborah Radisch was the medical examiner who performed the autopsy. She took the stand to address questions concerning the condition of the body, injuries sustained and cause of death. Radisch determined the cause of death to be asphyxiation due to the duct tape covering Harrington’s mouth and nose. She also stated the death occurred prior to the body being set fire within the trunk.

The final witness during Monday’s proceeding was State Bureau of Investigation agent Van Williams.

Throughout his testimony, physical evidence collected via search warrants from both the trunk of Harrington’s car and Sargeant’s home was presented to the jury.

Presentation of state’s evidence will continue throughout the week. Following the state’s evidence, the defense will have the floor to present evidence supporting the scenario outlined in Baker’s opening statement. The trial has been estimated to last two to three weeks.

Sargeant appears to be very active with his defense and can been seen whispering to his defense counsel frequently during evidence presentation.

He no longer has the ponytail seen in the original photo taken at the time of arrest on Nov. 9, 2005, but is clean cut, sitting alongside his attorneys in a suit and tie.